Cherry blossoms
by TheDrunkenWerewolf
Summary: A Gin&Cherry version of the Japanese folktale “hanasaka jiisan” - One day while working in the field, Gin rescues a white fox cub from his evil neighbour Tousen, and he and his brother Aizen look after her. A story of karma.


I wrote this on another quick break from exam revision. Just for tonight~  
_I need my breaks dammit!_

It was inspired by a video I somehow stumbled across earlier today, and so thought that I might do a Gin&Cherry version of it!  
Well, me and nii-san thought it was cute… it was taken from an old Japanese folktale: "hanasaka jiisan"

I have just one word for it – kawaii!  
Well, I like it, even if nobody else does... I'm very happy with how this one turned out. Anyway, enjoy~

* * *

**Cherry blossoms**

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who lived with his older brother in a small village at the foot of a mountain. This boy we shall name as Ichimaru Gin. He wore a dark yakuta and had hair the colour of fresh fallen snow. He was quite a scrawny fellow, but nonetheless, he was a hard worker with a kind and good heart. As was his older brother, Sousuke Aizen. They were quite poor though, as they were peasants who had to work in the fields.

The young Gin found himself to be ploughing in the field one day when he heard somebody shouting quite loudly, so he looked up to see who it was. It turned out to be the greedy old grouch Tousen from next door.

"Argh! Get out of my garden you filthy rat!"

Gin was then greeted by the sight of a small white fox cub, who was evidently trying to get away from the evil Tousen. It came running up to him and then cowered in fear by his feet. Leaving Gin quite bemused.

He then picked up the puppy, which was still trembling and shaking in fear of the evil grouch Tousen.

"Ne? What've we got here?"

He was then interrupted by his neighbour, who was quite enraged at the little fox that Gin was now holding.

"That mutt was tearing up my garden. Hand it over now!"

"Aw, ne? I'm sure she didn' mean no harm. Won't ya overlook it jus' this once? An I'll make sure tha' she don' bother ya again."

The little fox then licked the boys face as if in gratitude for saving her, which left Tousen fuming.

"Fine. Very well then. You can keep the little runt, but if I ever see that thing in my garden again I won't hesitate to kill it."

So after that, the kind hearted Ichimaru Gin and his brother Sousuke Aizen decided to keep the little stray fox that they had come across.

"Well, what are you going to name her Gin?" Aizen asked as they were both sitting by the fire later that night, watching Gin stroking the anonymous fox cub that was now in his arms.

"Hm… I'm gonna name 'er Cherry"

**…...**

The next day, Gin went off to work in the fields while his brother Aizen had gone off into the town on some business.

"Hey, Cherry-chan! Come along Cherry-chan! Will ya help me to work in the field t'day?"

Gin smiled as he then watched the little fox bound out of the door to their house, with a little basket tied to her back to carry some of the tools Gin would need. At the end of the day they returned with a full harvest. Cherry really did a good job of helping Gin.

That evening, as the both of them sat down to eat their rice; they gave Cherry a little plateful of her own. Life continued on like this for a while, and over time, Cherry grew into a fine and lovely fox. And so she became quite well known among the villagers.

But one morning when Gin was working in the fields, Cherry came over to him carrying an empty bag. She handed this over to Gin and then tugged at the sleeve to his yakuta and started barking loudly and wagging her tail excitedly.

"Ne ne? What is it Cherry-chan?"

It was as if she wanted to show him something.

"Eh, bu' Cherry-chan I'm kinda busy workin' at the moment…"

But still, the little fox wouldn't leave him alone, so in the end he decided to follow her. Taking the bag that she had given to him along with the plough he was working with. On their way they walked past Tousen, who was sitting quietly outside in front of his house.

"Hm, now what in the world are _they_ doing?"

**…...**

When they had reached the top of a hill, Cherry stopped near to a tree and then started barking again and began to scratch and dig at the ground. Gin took this as the incentive to start digging. So he got out his plough and he dug and he dug until there was an odd 'clunking' sound. He then stopped to see what it was.

He then discovered that it was gold.

"Cherry-chan, did ya do tha' fer us? Kwaa~ arigato Cherry-chan!" he hugged her as she wagged her tail some more, before he gathered up the gold into his bag and then started off back home. Where later that night, both he and Aizen would talk rather excitedly about how Cherry had found this treasure as she slept soundly curled up by the fire. But unknown to them, they were being spied on by their evil neighbour Tousen, who was listening intently about the treasure finding fox.

So later that night, he found Cherry, threw a rope around her neck and dragged her off to his house.

And the next morning, he forced the fox to show him where this treasure was, kicking and whipping her without mercy or shame, so that when they got to the top of the hill, she collapsed onto the floor. Exhausted and panting heavily.

"Aha! This must be the spot!" he yelled out in joy as he started to dig and scrape at the ground.

"Yes, now I am rich!"

But as Tousen started to dig at the hole, what he found there would not be gold, but instead some slimy snakes, along with ghastly hollows and a group of angry hornets. These chased him away and off around the hill, biting his ankles and stinging him until he was sore all over.

When the grumpy Kaname eventually returned to the place where Cherry was, he was outraged that he had been tricked by the fox.

"You! Look at what you have done, you stupid little fox!"

And in his anger, he killed the fox instantly for her treachery to him.

**…...**

How Gin and Aizen wept for Cherry at her grave when they had buried her. And how awful their loss was. They would never forget her, and they both would visit Cherry's tomb every day to remember her.

Many years had passed, and one day, when they were both on their way to the grave, they were quite surprised to find a beautiful cherry tree in its place. But it still had Cherry's name in kanji engraved onto it.

"Look Aizen, its Cherry-chan's tree"

"Its rather pretty isn't it?"

Gin then felt a gentle breeze, and heard what he thought to be a voice on the wind.

"Make the tree into a mortar…" it seemed to say. Maybe it was the voice of cherry.

"Hey Aizen-chan, why don't we make this here tree into a mortar to pound rice?"

"Why yes, come to think of it, Cherry always did love mochi didn't she?"

So they cut down the large tree and carried the trunk of it back to their little house where they made it into a large mortar. They then used it to pound what remaining rice they had to make some rice cakes with it. Gin kneaded the dough as Aizen pounded, and in the end, the mochi was ready to be made up into rice cakes. But then something strange happened.

"Look Aizen, wha's that?"

"It's changed to a gold colour. I've never seen anything like _this_ before."

"Well, I guess mochi is mochi, no matter what colour it is… let's start makin' these rice cakes."

And so with that, they started to shape the mochi into individual rice cakes. But much to their surprise, they all solidified into gold bars.

"Oh my god"

"It's gold!"

But then the moment was wrecked when they were met by their greedy neighbour Tousen.

"Hey, how about you let me borrow that mortar?" he asked, not even waiting for a reply and walked right in and took the mortar away and back to his house.

Gin's expression saddened.

"But… but that's all that's left of our little Cherry-chan…"

**...…**

As soon as Tousen got into his house, he started to pound some mochi. But he found that when it changed colours, it changed to a dark black colour instead. And then he started to shape it into the rice cakes. But when he did so, he saw that it exploded into this dark and horrible slimy stuff, completely covering him.

Outraged that he had been tricked again by Gin and Aizen, Tousen then grabbed the nearest axe and started to chop up the wooden mortar, and proceeded to burn it on the fire.

**...…**

The next morning, Gin went to Tousen's house to get their mortar back, when he found that it was gone. His neighbour Tousen was sitting at his table waiting.

"Oh, don't bother looking for your mortar, I've already chopped it up and burnt it on the fire." He said, seemingly quite pleased with himself at having had his revenge.

Gin was upset when he saw the large pile of ash that lay in the fireplace. But he decided that since that was all that remained of his darling Cherry, he would gather all of the ash he could carry and take it home with him.

"Cherry-chan…"

He then showed the ashes to Aizen, who said:

"Lets scatter them on the field and then we can grow the radishes that Cherry-chan used to love so much"

So that was what they did. They would scatter the remains of their darling onto their field. But as they did so, a large gust of wind blew some of the ashes onto one of the nearby dead trees, making it blossom madly.

"Oh my god… Gin look"

"Whaaaa~ cherry blossoms! Cherry-chan's cherry blossoms!"

Having seen this miracle, they decided to scatter more of the ashes onto more of the trees, watching in awe and wonder at the sight of the trees in full bloom. And soon, all of the cherry trees were flowering, and the blossoms of Cherry-chan were covering the whole village. Even Tousen was amazed.

One of the villagers, Ulquiorra, found the sight breathtaking.

"This is amazing... such lovely cherry blossoms… and its not even spring."

**...…**

Now the emperor Yamamoto had eventually gotten word of this miracle, and summoned the two brothers to see him.

"I've heard a lot about you two; let me see what miracle you can perform."

Gin responded happily, wanting to please the emperor.

"Hai Yama-jii! Just watch this; I'll make this dead cherry tree come back to life again!"

The cherry tree then started to bloom again as soon as the ashes touched it, delighting and amusing the emperor.

"This is truly amazing! What a delightful skill!"

It was then that they were interrupted by Tousen, who came running into the courtyard of the emperor, carrying what remained of Cherry's ashes.

"Wait your majesty, I also possess this ability!" he yelled out as he jumped onto one of the large branches of one of the cherry trees.

"Just watch this!" he said, throwing his ashes down. But they got blown out by the wind and they go everywhere, making the emperor cough and sneeze and ashes get in his eyes. The emperor was not amused by this in the slightest.

"You impudent fool!" the emperor's voice boomed. "How dare you disrespect me! Guards, take this man away!"

Gin and Aizen just smiled to themselves at the sight of their greedy and evil neighbour Tousen getting yelled at by the emperor, before a familiar sound caught their attention. It was a barking noise.

Gin gasped.

"Cherry-chan!"

He was greeted by the familiar sight that he thought he would never see again. The sight of his beloved Cherry running up to him, barking and wagging her tail in sheer joy. The little fox leaping into his arms as the overjoyed Ichimaru Gin laughed playfully as she licked his face and buried her nose into his chest. Aizen got a thorough licking too; they had both missed her so much and were thrilled that they were back together again.

And the newly reunited little family just laughed and watched the scene as Kaname Tousen was dragged away and thrown into jail.

And they thought that it served him right for being so evil and wicked. And they were so grateful to the very gods that the three of them were all together again. And that they could live the rest of their lives together.

* * *

Whaaaaat~ me kill off Cherry? Are you mad? Why on earth would I do that?  
Naaah, I never could ya know… so excuse the nonsense ending! Either way, I hope ya liked my little Gin&Cherry version of the story. I started with such a cliche too... sorry about that. Its a bit crackish, but still kawaii!

Whaaaa~ this was so much fun to write! And as always, I will appreciate all feedback and opinions.

Kawaii! I keep laughing and squealing so much at this! I love it! It's just so adorable! I'm so happy right now!


End file.
